The Survival Mom: Should Every Family Own a Gun?

Anti-gun rhetoric has been a fact of my life as long as I can remember. As a new mom, I even tried keeping toy guns out of the house because I had bought into some of the myths surrounding gun ownership. For example:

All of those are nonsense, of course, but as a mom, all I wanted was for my children to be safe. I knew that my husband wasn’t exactly on board with my gun ban. As a lifetime NRA member, he has always been vocal in his support of the Second Amendment and our right to own firearms, if we choose.

I suppose I could continue to tiptoe around the issue of firearms, but I am convinced that every survival minded family must own at least one gun, train their children in gun safety and shooting skills, and that a firearm should be part of everyone’s preparedness plan.

But Gun Owners Cause Mass Shootings!

With all the news coverage of mass killings, you may believe the argument that “legal gun owners never stop a mass shooting.” That is a flat out lie. The link to the Easy Bake Gun Club includes a link to news articles on defensive gun use for just one random month.

If you look a little close at these incidents, you will see that most occur in “gun-free zones” like schools. That means no one there was legally carrying and able to fight back.

LEOs (Law Enforcement Officers) agree that trained, legally carrying citizens make their job safer, and actually reduce casualties at mass shooting incidents. The report in that link surveyed over 15,000 LEOs from across the country, representing all sizes of police departments. Their opinion on the subject of legally carrying citizens is a lot like a cardiologist’s opinion of a heart problem: it’s the one to listen to because they have specialized knowledge and lots of experience in the field.

What Does It Matter?

It’s shocking to read comments from non-preppers, and even a few preppers, that part of their survival plan is to take by force the food and supplies they need from people who have prepared. If you are putting time, effort, and money into supplies that will help your family survive future crises, then you absolutely must include firearms as a layer in personal and home safety.

Which should you choose? My #1 choice for overall home protection is a shotgun. Either a 12-gauge or the slightly smaller 20-gauge are excellent choices. Although practice with this firearm is vital, shot placement isn’t as critical as it is with handguns.

What about handguns?

They’re an excellent choice as well. Their main advantage is that they can be concealed and carried, not providing any hint that you are lethally armed unless or until it becomes absolutely necessary. In a shootout, law enforcement officers miss their target some 70% of the time, and they’ve had plenty of training and practice. Firing and missing when it’s your family under attack isn’t a pleasant thought, so ongoing training and practice is absolutely necessary.

One more myth I would like to debunk is that of “The Bad Guy” (singular). It’s a fact that bad guys have buddies. One critical reason to own a firearm is that a single person has very little chance of survival when faced with multiple “bad guys”, intent on harm, and very possibly armed themselves.

There’s no reason to put your life and those of your loved ones in harms way because you want to be politically correct. Being smart beats politically correct every time.

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